Ethos

November 06, 2005

you are going to hear more and more debate about "free markets" vs. "government intervention". Obviously, this is a political question: so-called free market "special interests" (one dollar, one vote) vs. "common interests" (one person, one vote).

The Hansonian admonition for today requires that you exercise enough free will to remind yourself that economics like war is politics by other means, and yes, the end-game has nothing to do with truth, rather, it's about fitness. Those free marketers, who actually bother to rationalize their arguments, base them on three false assumptions and deliberate lies:

October 20, 2005

It is time that crack cocaine laws change. Policymakers must have the courage to rationally reform them, and to directly confront issues of racial disparity. Perhaps the Millions More Movement can be the beginning of a grassroots catalyst that encourages those on Capitol Hill and in the White House to mend this “crack” in our justice system.

Nkechi Taifa states the painfully obvious that conservative apologists inexplicably refuse to touch at BlackCommentator

October 14, 2005

The theory that Yang and colleagues have developed is the extra connections between nerve cells give liars a greater ability to lie. Dr. Raine put it this way: "Lying takes a lot of effort." For example, "You have to be able to understand the mindset of the other person (and) to suppress your emotions or regulate them because you don't want to appear nervous."

Their theory is partly based on two observations, Yang said:

Young children do not lie well and their prefrontal cortex has less white matter proportionately than it will later in life.

Autistic people, whose prefrontal cortex has the "converse pattern of grey/white ratio to that shown by the liar group," also do not lie easily.

Previous studies have shown that moral decisions involve the prefrontal cortex. "If these liars have a 14 percent reduction in grey matter, that means that they are less likely to care about moral issues or are less likely to be able to process moral issues," Dr. Raine said.

October 10, 2005

Hopefully a little timely neuroscience will inject the rationalism required to stave off any ill-considered quackings about moral absolutism and moral relativism hereabouts.

Through the centuries, philosophical theories have adopted a deductive logico–verbal approach to morality that aims to identify universal principles that should guide human conduct. By contrast, a scientific approach to morality is emerging from the documentation of changes in moral behaviour in patients with brain dysfunction5, which provides inferences that concern the major dimensions of moral cognition. Moral cognitive neuroscience, therefore, aims to elucidate the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie moral behaviour. Here, morality is considered as the sets of customs and values that are embraced by a cultural group to guide social conduct, a view that does not assume the existence of absolute moral values.

September 13, 2005

The National Black United Front is sponsoring the deliverable from a roundtable think tank at the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis Tennessee.

John Roberts confirmation hearing places the issue of the racialization of justice in America in the context of his philosophical and ideological predispositions relevant to the administration of justice pursuant to interpretation of laws. The 14th Amendment's guaranty of equal protection under the law as so eloquently opined in Brown v. Board of Education is again ripe for review as a frame of reference when addressing racial disparity in the criminal justice system. Perhaps not deliberate, the effect is the same: institutionalized racism to the extent that Blacks and Hispanics are prosecuted more and recieve more severe sentences upon conviction for the same crime as, say, a non Black or non Hispanic. This fact is codified, documented, and bona fide as a reliable statistic with far-reaching implications.

August 25, 2005

To be conscious at this moment means to accept that everything you have ever been taught in church and school is a farce, and that maintaining the American way of life will prove anti-thetical to every moral value you pretend to hold dear.

Never during our media saturated recollection has America's history so openly centered on subjugation to greed, fear, and monstrousness. In direct and overt contradiction of all the many just-so-stories which exist to reinforce our allegedly Christian identity, we are faced with the increasingly open expression of anti-Christian soullessness.

June 06, 2005

The office of Representative John Conyers (D-MI) believes it has surpassed its stated goal of 100,000 signatures requesting an investigation into the Downing Street Memo, minutes of a British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002.

In shopping malls around the city, young people are buying T-shirts with statements that would make any parent, police officer or community leader cringe: "Criminal minded." "Let's get blown." "Ready to Die."

But one in particular has some city officials particularly stunned: A T-shirt that warns boldly across the front, "Stop Snitchin."

Coming on the heels of the Stop Snitching DVD that began circulating in Baltimore last year, the T-shirts are disheartening to those who say they aggravate an already chronic problem of witness intimidation. While shops that sell the shirts say the tees are not connected to the DVD, city officials say the message remains the same - and it's a damaging one.

...

But those who buy such T-shirts - and those who make or sell them - say the shirts are just fashion.

"I don't take it to heart," said Larry Smith, of Essex, who recently bought a "Stop Snitchin" T-shirt from Changes, a jeans and urban wear store in Eastpoint Mall. "I just like the shirt. It's just a figure of speech."

The shirts, some of which simply say "Stop Snitchin," and others that are more graphically embellished with shotgun targets or other images, sell for about $19 to $28.

This is obscene and that's being nice about it.

I shop at that store when giving gifts to younger family members. I have purchased a few items for myself as well.

No longer.

Not only that, but I've made it clear to my offspring that Changes is off limits. If something comes from that store, and I find out about it, My Wrath Will Be Felt.